Alexander Katerinakis and Stingers hoist the Corey Cup in the 2022-2023 season.
Photo credit: Concordia Athletics
The McGill Redbirds and the Concordia Stingers men’s hockey teams will meet on Jan. 31 for the 36th annual Corey Cup game.
Since 1988, the trophy has been given to the winner of one regular season game between McGill and Concordia. The games have been played on both Mcgill and Concordia’s campuses, as well as the historic Montreal Forum and Bell Centre. With the rivalry for what’s at stake, the excitement to win this game never seems to fade.
Looking back at the history of the event, McGill won 19 of the matchups while Concordia won 12. The Stingers hoisted the trophy in the past two Corey Cup matchups.
In 2024, there will be an additional layer of drama and competitiveness. Not only will the historic cup be up for grabs, but also a ticket to the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) men’s hockey playoffs.
As of Jan. 28, a slim four points separate first place in the OUA East division from fourth. It could be the difference between hosting a playoff series or playing on the road. The Redbirds currently sit in first place with a 18-5-2 record while the Stingers sit in fourth, four points behind the Redbirds at 16-7-2.
The Redbirds and Stingers are coming in as two of the hottest teams in the OUA East division. With eight wins in their last 10 games, McGill has sprung up four seeds into the top spot of the division since returning from the Christmas break. Winners of seven of their last 10 games, Concordia has made noise as well. They have maintained a top four position in the division all season, and are safely in the race for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. It will be a dogfight to see which teams come out on top in the tightly-contested division.
This game will also be the rubber match of the season series between the two teams. The Stingers won their first regular season game of the year when they beat McGill on Oct. 5, while the Redbirds got their revenge with a 1-0 shutout of the Stingers on Nov. 23. It will be the only game this season where the two teams meet at Ed Meagher Arena, unless a potential playoff rematch is in the cards come February.
The 2024 edition of the Corey Cup game appears to have all the ingredients of a barn-burner. As the regular season winds down and the two rivals meet one final time, the atmosphere at Ed Meagher Arena should be electric.
The incident sparked debates between the balance of free speech and hate speech on University Campuses
On Tuesday Jan. 10, the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism (CHRLP) from McGill University hosted a talk called “The Sex vs. Gender (Identity) Debate in the United Kingdom and the Divorce of LGB from T.”
The event was disrupted by more than 100 protesters due to the presence of controversial guest speaker and McGill alumni Robert Wintemute. Wintemute is a Human Rights Law Professor at King’s College London and a trustee of the LGB Alliance — an advocacy group funded in the UK that opposes certain policies for transgender rights on the grounds that they undermine those of lesbians, bisexuals and gay men and cisgender women.
The protestors occupied the first floor of Chancellor Day Hall and interrupted the professor’s talk by unplugging the projector, which then led to him being escorted out by McGill staff.
Celeste Trianon, a law student at Université de Montréal and trans rights activist, helped organize the campaign against Wintemute’s seminar.
According to Trianon and other queer advocacy groups, one of the LGB Alliance’s main goals is to oppose policies that aim at protecting and advancing trans rights.
Trianon explained that the organization had, among other things, lobbied against the “legal recognition of gender identity in the British and Scottish contexts” and works “in collaboration with other anti-trans organizations in the United States.”
She added that, in Canada, the LGB Alliance opposed the inclusion of transgender people in Bill C-4, which prohibited conversion therapy.
“Their whole idea is based on a far-right concept called ‘drop the T’ which is a strategy to divide the queer community by separating transgender people from the rest of the community,” said Trianon. “It is an organization that disguises itself as a pro-women’s rights and pro-gay and lesbian organization.”
Trianon is worried about the international scope that the Alliance is gaining, including in Canada.
“This is reflected in the fact that all the hate I received after the demonstration came from all over the world and not only from Quebec,”
Said Trianon.
Trianon went on to elaborate on the hate messages and death threats she received via email and social media.
In an interview with The Concordian, Wintemute said that part of his talk was to argue that trans people’s rights, particularly those of trans women, sometimes infringe on cis women’s rights and that legislation against discrimination was “full of contradictions.” He asserted the belief that many cis women agreed with his position but were too afraid or intimidated to speak up against pro-trans rights policies.
“What I was doing was no hate speech at all. Freedom of expression covers even ideas that can offend or disturb. There’s a tendency today that says disagreement equals hatred, but it doesn’t,”
Said Wintemute.
Wintemute argued that the protestors had no right to disturb his talk, comparing the event to “a mini version of the US Congress in Jan. 2021 or the Brazilian capital in Jan. 2023.”
McGill University declined to comment on the incident. A spokesperson from the CHRLP sent out an email saying, “Every year, the CHRLP organizes a range of events on a variety of human rights issues […] They are not an endorsement of any speaker’s views. McGill recognizes and supports the rights of its students to peaceful protest on campus.”
“This defense of academic freedom as an absolute concept is used to defend hate speech,” said Trianon. “We really have to ask ourselves who was really violent? Was it the protesters or this speech that puts trans people in danger? How do we define violence?”
Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes - Andrée LANTHIER
From Nov. 3-27, the Centaur Theatre Company presents an award-winning comedy on teacher-student relations from alternate perspectives
Hannah Moskovitch’s fantastic piece is about writing professor Jon Macklem (played by Marcel Jeannin), freshly separated from his wife. He develops a relationship with his 19-year-old student Annie (played by Inès Defossé), who also happens to be his neighbour from across the street. Aware and reluctant of his wrongful actions, the protagonist slowly succumbs to his temptations.
The audience watches as the professor internally struggles with the morality of his actions all while narrating in the third person with an ironic dry tone. “ The audience is a bit more forgiving, and you get into his story at the beginning,” said Jeannin. “A little bit like Walter White, where you’re sort of on board with him, because he knows what he’s doing is wrong. He has the choices, but you always see him making the wrong move, but regretting it.”
It wasn’t hard, however, for the actor to portray a hateable yet torn anti-hero. “You never want to judge a character, as an actor,” said Jeannin. “The audience can do it. What’s this guy’s job? He’s there to tell the story, and the playwright made him conscious that what he was doing was wrong.”
Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes – Andrée LANTHIER
Jon Macklem, for Jeannin, was interesting yet challenging. His interest for the character was sparked immediately when the script was handed to him. “At one point I thought it was too one-sided against him,” said the actor. “I was a little scared: I wasn’t sure. I was given the first draft. I read it and it was not perfect. I said there was something here, and I was curious to see the following one.”
Guided by the brilliance of director Eda Holmes, the physicality and movement in the piece was accentuated by her vision, which was guided by her dance formation in ballet. The play itself was not especially designed for dance and movement, but there were many clown-esque moments between the characters, punchlines delivered through physicality, in which Jeannin did a fantastic job. At times, the movement took the form of a ballad between the two, bringing metaphor into their sensuality.
As a public entertainer and artist, Jeannin was careful to analyze the ethics of the new play, which premiered in 2020. He did so to make sure that participating in a play with such a heavy subject and controversial angle was not in fact distasteful, and upsetting to audiences. “When they gave it to me, I read it. I gave it to a thirty-year-old woman and said ‘what do you think?’ She said it was funny.”
“The play weighs it so that you sympathize with the guy to a point,” added the actor. “But in the end, what he does is wrong.” The play is fitting for all audiences who could be interested in watching a play on dark subject matter interpreted in a tasteful comedic manner, riveting and engaging from beginning to end. All in all, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes is a great production, and a fresh point of view on such a hot topic amid the #metoo movement.
It’s from his point of view but from her point of view. If the audience isn’t on board with him at the beginning, then there’s no place to go.
You never want to judge a character, as an actor. The audience can do it. What’s this guy’s job? He’s there to tell the story. The playwright made him conscious that what he was doing was wrong.
When they gave it to me, I read it, and I gave it to a thirty year old woman, and said what do you think, and she said it was funny.
The play weighs it so that you sympathise with the guy to a point. But in the end, what he does is wrong.
He falls in love with her, is it genuine love, or is it infatuation?
At one point I thought it was too one-sided against him. I was a little scared: I wasn’t sure. I was given an earlier draft, the first. I read it and it was not perfect. I said there was something here, and I was curious to see the following draft. and then I got the following draft and I was a little taken aback because in the first draft, she was a little more experienced.
In this draft they’d taken away all the experience. It was the right decision because from my perspective, i go, you’ve totally weighed it against him. Its not ambiguous. The director says yes but the play is from her point of view. The writer got rid of the stuff that made it ambiguous.
It’s a very good play, I love it the more I work on it.
Nothing special, the only thing i did that i don’t usually do is i got off book early. Usually I learn my lines in rehearsal. This time we only had four weeks. That’s the only thing I did differently to prepare. Otherwise, nothing. I made sure I understood every moment, and that every time there was contact that I was initiating it.
It’s a big one to unpack, you tend to think what the character’s writing, or what he speaks about, is autofiction. The play is autofiction. He put everything in the third person, he did autofiction. and that at the end of the play you find out it’s not even his play, it’s her autofiction, her perspective of his perspective. He’s in somebody else’s autofiction.
The toughest moment for me to play is the moment in the bar when he walks away from her because I’ve been in some positions where I can kind of understand. There’s a lot of him that I can understand.
Me: I go: schmuck, listen to her. He’s at a level of selfishness that he makes about him, which is why he walks away from her. Again, me, my self preservation would go: listen to her. It’s a heavy lift for me.
A lot of clown in this. Quick shifts, barrelling, the specifically clown bits were the bandage scene: that’s pure clown.
McGill students share their frustration after the university reinstated their exchange program after cancelling it two weeks prior.
On Oct. 5, McGill University cancelled its student exchanges for the Winter 2022 semester due to the Canadian government’s global travel advisory, which advised Canadians to “Avoid non-essential travel” amid ongoing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, in an email sent to students on Oct. 22, McGill announced the possibility of resuming exchanges for the winter semester due to the removal of the global travel advisory. In light of this news, many McGill students expressed their frustration with the university’s decision to cancel exchanges abroad for the third time, while Concordia University’s exchange program operated throughout the pandemic.
“Why can’t McGill logistically deal with this, when there is a school right down the street that’s doing it and has been doing it throughout this pandemic?” asked Max Garcia, a third-year geography student at McGill.
Discouraged and frustrated, Garcia took it upon himself to start a petition demanding a clear answer from the university.
After reaching 500 signatures, Garcia contacted the university and met with Fabrice Labeau, the deputy provost of student life and learning at McGill University, to further discuss how the cancellation affected students’ academic plans.
“People planned their lives around this. I took a course last winter in preparation for the exchange because it is a required thing that only happens in the winter, and I was supposed to take it this year. It’s things like that that [Labeau] just wasn’t getting,” said Garcia.
With Global Affairs Canada lifting the worldwide travel advisory for fully vaccinated Canadians, McGill is currently working with host universities to determine whether reinstatement of the Winter 2022 exchanges will be possible for some students.
But Madison Gordon, a third-year psychology major at McGill, shares the same frustration as Labeau.
“McGill was too quick to cancel the exchange and not look ahead at what the consequences would be. While they likely were not aware of when the global travel advisory would be lifted, I think that reinstating it after cancelling it was just a slap in the face, especially after many cancelled their accommodations [and] flights.”
The cancellation and reinstatement of the exchange program was a disruption to many other students. McGill stated in their email that exchanges actually happening are not guaranteed; however, the university is working with students and partner universities to ensure students proceed with their exchanges.
“It’s very possible that the host universities will have given away our spots to other international students. It’s not even a guarantee that I’m going to be able to go,” said Allie Fishman, a third-year management student.
All three students have stated that going on exchange is a personal choice, and a risk they are willing to take despite the pandemic.
“I just think it was kind of strange that McGill was making that decision on my behalf. When you know, there are already international students that come to McGill,” said Fishman.
According to Téo L. Blackburn, director of Concordia International, which represents the university in partnerships with over 180 educational facilities, said their team talked a lot about making a distinction between allowing exchanges and promoting them.
“It’s important that everybody understands that we weren’t recommending that you go on exchange. We are allowing you to go on exchange and making sure that if you were going on exchange, you are well informed, and you understood that we were there in case something happened,” Blackburn said.
Though McGill and UQAM based their decision on the Canadian Government’s global travel advisory recommendations, the Concordia International team decided to continue exchanges to give students the freedom of choice.
“I don’t know that I personally would have gone on exchange during COVID, and I know some of my international leaders and officers may not, and others may have, and that’s personal to them,” said Blackburn. “It’s personal to the students who do end up going.”
An update on Concordia’s housing co-op, The Woodnote, was given at the Concordia Student Union (CSU) meeting on March 10.
The Woodnote was first proposed to the CSU in 2014. According to its website, it is a non-profit organization that aims to facilitate access to affordable, inclusive housing for Concordia students. The co-op is the first of its kind in Montreal.
Michèle Le Moëligou, who gave the update during the CSU meeting, is the director of operations and marketing at L’Unité de travail pour l’implantation de logement étudiant (UTILE), a non-profit that promotes student housing in Quebec.
According to her update, The Woodnote was supposed to open in July 2020, but, because of COVID-19, there were delays in the building’s construction that pushed the official opening to September 2020.
Since then, over 140 tenants have lived at The Woodnote. It has a mix of studio, two bedroom and four bedroom apartments, and there is one family currently living there, said Le Moëligou during the meeting.
The update by Le Moëligou showed that 88 per cent of the tenants are from Concordia, with the rest being a mix of students from McGill, UQAM, and other universities. Most of the tenants have a yearly income of less than $12,000, Le Moëligou stated, showing the need for affordable housing.
Le Moëligou said at the meeting that The Woodnote is currently signing contracts with other universities to build similar models of student housing.
“This is the CSU’s baby, it’s been passed down from generation to generation [of CSU councils],” said Isaiah Joyner, the general coordinator of the CSU, at the meeting. There is a priority leasing period for Concordia students until the end of March, after which leasing will open up to students from other Montreal universities.
The self-identified far-right group believes “white people are under attack”
The Students for Western Civilization, a self-identified far-right organization originating from Toronto that believes “white people are under attack,” is attempting to launch a branch called the “White Students Union” at McGill University.
George Hutcheson, the director and spokesperson for Students for Western Civilization, spoke to The Concordian about the group’s attempt to become an officially registered club at McGill University. He alleges that universities propagate the idea that “all white people are racist,” and feels that the organization is necessary.
According to Hutcheson, they have 20 active members in the Students for Western Civilization in Toronto and five founding members in the Montreal branch. He said that since hanging the posters at McGill, they have received several applications for the Montreal branch. They have not started the application process for the new candidates yet, he told The Concordian.
Hutcheson said he is more concerned about “skinheads” wanting to be a part of the “White Students Union” than undercover “Antifa.” Hutcheson considers “skinheads” to be “crazy people” who would misrepresent his organization.
“Since these ideas are so heavily oppressed, these people are attracted to them because they’re oppressed. They want to be associated with crazy ideas because they’re crazy. They want to get into trouble. That’s not what we are about,” he said.
Although he does consider his group to be far-right, he believes that his group’s distinction is that they are “mature and sincere.” He reinforces that idea by claiming his group is not meant to “troll” people.
He claims that the group is genuinely concerned about “anti-white hate speech,” and the implications of “mass immigration,” such as Europeans becoming minorities in western countries.
He makes a distinction between his group and the group “Proud Boys” by stating that “their vision is focused around culture. Whereas ours is more ethnic.”
“We’re concerned about how in our universities it is being propagated that all white people are racist, only white people can be racist, white fragility, white privilege — we feel that it is white people who are under attack. Therefore, it is logical and necessary for there to be a defense for that group who are under attack. The Proud Boys don’t use that kind of language,” he said.
Hutcheson explained that his concerns regarding “mass immigration” are that white people, as minorities, won’t have the political power to retain their sovereignty and autonomy. However, he did not acknowledge that what he fears is the same experience that minorities face in Canada today.
He used the recent United States election as an example, where he explained, “The majority of European Americans voted for the Republican Party like they always do. Every other ethnic group voted for the opposing party. So now European America is being ruled over someone they did not elect.”
Hutcheson’s assertion that every other ethnic group voted for the Democratic Party in the 2020 United States presidential election is incorrect — both African American and Latino American voters increased their support for Donald Trump since the 2016 election. According to The Atlantic, Donald Trump received approximately 32 per cent of the Latino vote in the 2020 election. This is an increase from 28 per cent in the 2016 election. According to the AP VoteCast survey, eight per cent of African Americans voted for President Trump in the 2020 election which, according to the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, was an increase of two percent from the 2016 election.
When asked why he named the club “White Students Union” as opposed to “European Students Union,” he explained that he uses the term white to “send a message that we won’t tolerate oppression or being controlled. We won’t tolerate being told what we can call ourselves.”
“If we want to call ourselves white then we are going to call ourselves white. You can’t tell us that we can’t call ourselves white or have a white student union. It’s a gesture of defiance. An explicit assertion of our identity,” said Hutcheson.
In the future he plans to transition his group from a purely academic group to a human rights activist group. He would like to start setting up conferences at McGill but said that it is extremely difficult given the circumstances surrounding COVID-19.
As of now, McGill University has not responded to their request to become an officially registered club. Will McGill issue a statement about a “White Students Union” on campus? In 2015, a Ryerson University’s Spokesperson stated that the “White Students Union” posters put up on their campus were offensive. It’s been five years, and now they are attempting to find like-minded followers in Montreal.
The Concordia Stingers are moving on after winning the battle of Montreal. With a game three win against McGill, they’ve made their way into the OUA East semifinals.
After a barnburning comeback victory the night before, another high flying, flashy shootout of a game wouldn’t have been out of the question.
Instead, the Stingers provided a tight, smothering, efficient game of fundamental hockey that would be any coach’s dream.
Two powerplay goals in the second period and a complete shutdown of their cross-town rivals in the third was a recipe for success.
“It was the way both teams had the game plans set up, like a chess match,” said Stingers defenceman Carl Neill. “There weren’t many goals going, not many chances. But when we got our chances we put them in, luckily, so for us it was about keeping their chances to a minimum.”
They certainly did that. McGill’s potent offence was stymied as Neill and the rest of the defence smothered McGill’s forwards, cutting down shooting lanes and moving the puck out of their end with composure.
That, combined with some key saves from rookie goaltender Kyle Jessiman and a strong puck management game from their forwards showed another side of Concordia that McGill just wasn’t ready for.
It may not provide a collection of highlight reel goals but the Stingers game plan and execution were textbook examples of how to win when it comes to tight, low scoring playoff hockey.
The fact that they could roll four lines and three defensive pairings that could handle this made it that much easier to do this throughout the series.
“Everyone chipped in,” said Stingers forward Tyler Hylland, who had three goals in the series. “We had guys up and down the lineup step up all series long. It wasn’t just one guy or one line. The two games we won, all the lines were going, everyone was playing well. That’s what you need in the playoffs.”
What’s interesting is that the Stingers started the series on the other side of a 2-1 loss at McGill. However, it was in the late stages of that game that they started to figure out what exactly they needed to do to win this series.
Stingers winger Chase Harwell noted that the team spent much of game one focusing on McGill and their game. They were playing a game based on McGill’s style of play, rather than focusing on what had brought them success in the past: their game.
From that point on, it was Concordia’s series. They controlled the play completely in the third period of the first game, outshot McGill by double in the second game, and fully stifled their rivals’ offence in the third. All by playing their game.
“We’ve been sticking to our game, focusing on ourselves and what we can do to beat them. We stuck to our thing and they couldn’t handle it,” said Harwell.
McGill couldn’t get under their skin in game three, but Concordia forced their opponents to take some penalties out of frustration.
The tight, efficient, in-your-face style of game that may not always be pretty was exemplified by Harwell who scored the game-winning goal off of a tough rebound.
Harwell was all over McGill both offensively and defensively. He found success on the powerplay and penalty kill, drew penalties, and threw a collection of hits that kept McGill players looking over their shoulders.
“He battled the whole series,” said Stingers head coach Marc-André Élement. “He’s a playoff guy, he blocked shots. I found he was the best player on the ice tonight. He was in their face, playing the right way. I’ve gotta give him credit.”
With this win, Harwell and his teammates found out that they can win big games whether they’re high scoring battles or defensive showdowns; a major confidence boost for them as they move further into the playoffs.
“We’re a young team still. Having both [experienced both high and low scoring wins] just adds to our experience, knowing that we can play in any [type of] game,” said Hylland.
They’ll need that confidence as they get set to take on the Carleton Ravens, the top seeded team in the division. It’s sure to be a difficult matchup with plenty of animosity. If there’s a team that rivals the bitterness of the Concordia/McGill matchup, it’s Carleton.
But the team is feeling confident heading in, and, for a few hours after the game at least, they’re soaking things in.
“It doesn’t get much better than this,” said Neill.
Plenty of coaches and teams love to preach character and attitude, to the point where it becomes a cliché.
Then games like game two between Concordia and McGill happen and the definition becomes clearer.
In one of the most intense, exciting Stingers games in recent memory, Concordia mounted a comeback to force a decisive game three in this opening round of the playoffs.
Looking like underdogs early in the game and facing elimination with a loss, the team never slowed down or looked to have quit throughout the game, regardless of their cross-town rivals’ advantages at different points in the game.
“No one doubted us in the room. There was good vibes in the room and good vibes on the bench too,” said Stingers defenceman Carl Neill.
Neill and his team trailed 2-0, 3-1, and 4-2 throughout the game and climbed right back into things each time. Neill said they embraced their “us against the world” mentality and just pushed through a number of roadblocks in the game.
The Stingers battled a slow start and some self-inflicted damage caused by penalties leading to McGill goals in the first period. They dug themselves a hole that got deepened by factors that would be hard to lay at their door.
For example, captain Philippe Sanche was hauled down at the opposing net but somehow earned a penalty himself for that. Then there was the penalty shot.
Philippe Sanche was mixing it up physically all night
McGill was awarded a penalty shot late in the second period, leading 3-2. After the shot, a no-goal call was made, only for the referee to change his mind seconds later and call it a McGill goal—something coaches and players had never seen before. There are no goal reviews in U Sports so reversing calls is not something that usually happens.
The puck looked to have stopped on the line or against the post but once the no-goal call was overturned, McGill’s Michael Cramarossa skated over to Concordia’s bench for an extravagant celebration right in the Stingers’ faces, earning himself a ten minute misconduct penalty.
Several stingers players called this the true turning point of the game. Concordia was already outshooting McGill and controlling much of the play in the second. But suddenly, down 2 goals and headed into the third, they had some extra motivation right in their face.
“I don’t want to say it’s childish, but at a certain point, you’re in the playoffs,” said Neill. “I believe in the hockey gods and karma, so I wouldn’t be doing anything like that. If that’s your thing go for it. But I’ve never seen that turn things in your favour.”
The Stingers of the third period were something else. The team began to use its speed to push McGill, breaking through the neutral zone and creating strong rushes on the fly. McGill was suddenly getting beat back more and more and by the end of the game, the Stingers nearly doubled the visitors shot count with 50.
“We’ve been working for two weeks on our neutral zone regroups and I think we applied that really well tonight,” said the Stingers’ hero of the game, Anthony Beauchamp who made an impressive play to set up the Stingers third goal before tying the game at four with a goal of his own midway through the third.
Jake Fletcher battles for the puck against McGill’s Nikolas Brouillard
The Stingers never-say-die attitude carried them through the third and much of the second. Smiles could be seen across their faces and there was no doubt that the teams matched each other physically in a heavy hitting matchup like this. When Stingers winger Chase Harwell spent some time berating and challenging McGill’s entire bench, it didn’t seem out of place thanks to the Stingers maintaining what Neill calls their swagger.
“I’m proud of the guys,” said Sanche. “If you want to be successful, especially in the playoffs, you have to be in their face. You can’t go down, it’s do or die. That happened tonight.”
As the Stingers dominated the third and forced overtime, everyone appreciated the team effort, but Beauchamp was the clear focus of the win.
One of the Stingers’ fastest players, he has consistently been referred to by teammates as one of their hardest workers as well. When he was on the ice, McGill often found themselves scrambling to keep up with his speedy breakouts and forceful rushes.
“He started on the bottom line and climbed his way up [the lineup tonight], so I’m really proud of him,” said Stingers head coach Marc-André Élement.
So who better to finish this underdog comeback? On a rush into McGill’s zone in overtime, a McGill player ended up on his knees as defenceman Gabriel Bilodeau skated in with Beauchamp suddenly unguarded.
As the pass slipped over to him, Beauchamp closed his eyes and ripped a shot with everything he had. His teammates knew it was the game winner before it had the time to even bounce back out of the net. The Ed Meagher arena exploded in cheers as coaches jumped up and down and the bench emptied of players on their way to swarm their teammate.
“That’s why we play hockey. Everyone in the room got goosebumps after that,” said Beauchamp with a smile.
The Stingers found themselves in a hole at the end of Thursday night.
It wasn’t an insurmountably deep hole and they’d faced plenty of pressure like this throughout the season—but the hole remains nonetheless.
“It’s not one game that’s going to bury us. We’re going to be fine. We just have to go back to the basics […] and work our balls off,” said Stingers captain Philippe Sanche after the team’s loss in game one of the OUA East playoffs.
A 2-1 loss certainly wasn’t the result that they were searching for against cross-town rival McGill, but if they want to find a different result in their do-or-die matchup on Saturday night at home, they’ll need a different start.
While the game started with the back and forth pace that comes with matchups between Concordia and McGill, the Stingers spent much of the first half of the game looking flat and lacking energy.
McGill controlled play heavily through the first period and it took Stingers goalie Kyle Jessiman making a collection of show stopping saves to keep the team together.
Carl Neill dekes around McGill’s Taylor Ford
The normally speedy, physical team looked to be missing some of the keys to what made them such a dangerous force this season.
“[The physicality] was ok. I wanted the guys to be a little bit more physical on them. That’s what we addressed between the second and the third,” said Stingers head coach Marc-André Élement. “If we do that we’ll have more success. We have to limit their time and space.”
The sleepy start mixed with some unfortunate and questionable calls by the referees left the Stingers chasing the game; a dangerous place to be in a best-of-three playoff series where every second matters so much.
“It’s always a little bit nerve-wracking to start the playoffs. You got that little bit of anxiety, it takes you a while to settle in. Especially if it’s your first year in the league,” said Stingers forward Tyler Hylland.
The team’s youth and inexperience started to show as they took the time to get used to the hard, fast, tight game that comes with postseason hockey.
Of the nineteen players that saw the ice for the Stingers, nine were in their first U Sports playoff game. Another six had only ever played two playoff games in the league. Only Sanche, centre Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, defencemen Carl Neill and Alexandre Gosselin had more experience than that heading into game one against McGill.
Those nerves did get pushed off eventually.
Tyler Hylland lines up for a faceoff
“We’re a young team, [after the first] guys were feeling more confident and in the game. We kept our game simple,” said Élement.
Midway through the second, the team started to find itself and its style a bit more. Hylland scored his first U Sports playoff goal and the play began to shift the Stingers’ way.
They dominated possession in the third period, missing chances by inches. The closest they came to evening a game in which they had trailed 2-0 came as Neill ripped a heavy shot just off the post in the game’s final minute.
Though they failed to find an equaliser in their late-game push, the control that the Stingers played with in the third felt like something they could carry over.
“If we play like we did in the third, we’ll be right back in that series Saturday,” said Élement.
It’s pressure time now though. The team will need to win at home in game two in order to keep their season alive and force a decisive game three back at McGill on Sunday.
The Stingers are now faced with two words they’ve become accustomed to this season: pressure and adversity.
They’ve been injured (missing up to eight players at times), dealt with suspensions, a young class not having a full lineup to play with, and more. It’s been a rocky season with plenty of obstacles. That’s exactly why the team feels ready for this moment.
“It’s never a good thing to have a perfect season. It helps build a team’s character to go through adversity during the year,” said Hylland. “If you face adversity as a team and you’re used to it, you know how to handle it and respond. We’re facing adversity again, it’s nothing new to us, we know how to respond.”
He pointed to the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the St. Louis Blues. The blues were last in the league standings at point and were continuously counted out before eventually winning the cup.
The Stingers have no options. It’s time to take any lessons learned this year and put them to good use with everything on the line. They should be laser focused and ready to play Saturday night.
“It’s the biggest game of the year. There’s not a nervous feeling in the room,” said Hylland.
On the seventh annual Pink in the Rink match, the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team came out on top with a 4-1 win over the McGill Martlets. The Pink in the Rink game serves as a fundraiser for the CURE Foundation for breast cancer.
“It’s incredible what our players do,” said head coach Julie Chu after the win. “The amount of effort that they put into it. They work the men’s game, make sure to decorate the rink, bake stuff, try to promote it, and raise as much money as possible. On top of preparing as student-athletes for their classes and their games. It’s a really important game and it’s awesome to see what a great job they do with it.”
While the season series between Concordia and McGill has been extremely close, this game felt different. The Stingers, all wearing pink laces, came out flying, disrupting passing lanes, blocking shots, and making life just generally unpleasant for McGill goalie Tricia Deguire. Sandrine Lavictoire scored her first goal of the season to open up the game in the first period with a shot from the point that made its way through traffic and into the back of the net. Captain Claudia Dubois would add another one for the Stingers after she finished a nice passing play from linelinemate Audrey Belzile. Dubois would score another goal in the second period off of a great effort play by Belzile.
While Belzile’s been getting some points out of her play (7pts in her last 8 games), her effort is not rewarded on the scoresheet nearly enough. This game, it was. The Stingers have a much harder time beating the Martlets if she isn’t making the type of effort plays that she did. Her two assists both game from using her awareness and skill to set up Dubois. The first was a behind-the-back-no-looker from the corner, right to the stick of Dubois for the tap-in. The second apple was pure hustle. With Stephanie Lalancette just looking to ice the puck, Belzile outraced the McGill defenders, got the icing waved off, collected the puck, turned, and fired a pass right to Dubois for the easy tap-in as she crashed into the boards.
It was plays like those that had Chu praising her team’s effort.
“Last weekend, there were two areas that we didn’t do well in,” said Chu. “The first was our backcheck. That was something we worked on a lot, we watched the video on it. The other was releasing shots and releasing pucks quicker. Those were our keys to success, and we were able to capitalize on them.”
McGill would add a goal of their own thanks to Marika Labrecque’s slot wrister that beat Stingers goalie Alice Philbert. She would finish the game with 26 saves on 27 shots. The second-year goalie now has 11 wins on the season. Amélie Lemay would add a power play marker to make it four on the night for the Stingers.
This was the type of win that shows the rest of U Sports that the Stingers aren’t just the top-ranked team in the country because they play in a tough division. McGill is a great team (although this game they were missing key player Jade Downie-Landry), and for the Stingers to win the way they did sends a message.
After claiming the RSEQ title last weekend against Carleton, the Stingers have done all they can to show that they’ve separated themselves from McGill and Montreal. With only two games left in the season, the only thing left for this team is to finish strong and see who the #4-seed in the RSEQ will be for the playoffs.
NOTES:
No notes this time, but enjoy this photo of Julie Chu and her daughter Liv.
Before the U Sports winter break, we did not see much of Sami Jahan.
Since coming back from the break, the rookie point guard has certainly put his stamp on this team as a bonafide starting guard of the future.
Coming into this season, the depth of the Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team was a major question mark. Throughout the season different rookies have been stepping up—whether it be Ali White, Nathaniel Boisvert and now Jahan.
The Stingers took the first of the two matchups in four days by a score of 68-67. While veterans Olivier Simon, Cedrick-Bryan Coriolan and Sami Ghandour all had solid outings—it was the bench and role players who played a key role in the Stingers’ victory.
Photo by Cecilia Piga
In Thursday night’s match, Jahan finished with a team high 17 points and five assists. He made some incredibly clutch shots down the stretch and proved that he can hang with the big boys. He showed off some incredible handles as well.
Second year guard Nathaniel Boisvert went 3/3 from 3-point range finishing with nine points in the contest.
However it was Cedrick-Bryan Coriolan who stole the show on Thursday. It was a tightly contested game the whole way through until Coriolan made an incredible highlight reel play, finished off by Jahan that ultimately put the nail in McGill’s coffin.
Saturday’s match-up at McGill was much of the same story. A tight game with neither team really able to pull away on the scoreboard. The game needed an extra frame to decide a winner, where Jahan put on a performance to remember.
The Stingers won on Saturday by a score of 89-83 with some more late game heroics from Coriolan and Jahan.
Jahan made some clutch free throws down the stretch and finished the game with 28 points—a career high for the rookie. Veterans Simon and Oge Nwoko also chipped in offensively with 21 and 15 points respectively. Nwoko also added 13 rebounds to his statline, finishing with a double-double.
Women’s Basketball:
Photo by Cecilia Piga
Unfortunately for the women’s basketball team, they did not have the same fate as the men in their two matchups with the Martlets.
In the Thursday game, the Stingers led by five at half time but things fell apart for them in the third quarter where they were outscored by the Martlets by 11.
After a lights-out shooting performance in the first half, the Stingers went ice cold in the second, shooting just over 28 per cent––a far cry from the 38 per cent they were shooting in the first half.
While they did end up adding another loss to their record, a major positive coming out of the game was Nelly Owusu’s performance. She went 6/10 from the field and finished the game with a career and game high 17 points.
Owusu was the second highest ranked recruit last year behind the Stingers’ own Myriam Leclerc and after sitting out all of last year and half of this year with an injury, it was very nice to see what the second year player can do.
While the result was the same on Saturday, the story was certainly a different one. It looked like the Stingers were simply just overpowered by McGill. They played incredible defence forcing tough shots from the Stingers all afternoon.
Again, Owusu led the way in points for the team with 12, however the points were hard to come by for the rest of the team as the Stingers lost 75-53.
The Stingers have now fallen to the bottom of the RSEQ conference with the two losses but have played at least two fewer games than McGill and UQAM, the teams directly above them in the standings.
Down 3-1 going into the third period, the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team managed a strong comeback attempt but ultimately fell to the McGill Martlets 4-3 in double overtime.
It’s the first time all season that the Stingers have dropped back-to-back games.
“We gained a really important point. That’s a good point on the road, especially being down by two,” said head coach Julie Chu post-game.
The first period was a mixed bag for the Stingers, who didn’t register a shot on net for the first eight minutes. Dubois and Belzile were responsible for generating most of the team’s chances once the Stingers got settled and started shooting. Belzile just looked like a human wrecking ball, careening around the ice, avoiding Martlet players and in some cases, definitely not avoiding them. Dubois continues to show why she wears the ‘C’, controlling play in the offensive zone and completing most of her zone entries. It’s in times like this that I wish we had advanced stats for U Sports—because even with 16 and 14 points respectively—the box score doesn’t do Dubois or Belzile justice in terms of their impact on the ice. McGill dominated much of the first period, forcing the puck deep and trying to force the puck out in front of goalie Alice Philbert. Philbert would finish the game with 23 saves on 27 shots.
Dubois and Belzile both shined, but this game belonged to Rosalie Bégin-Cyr. The RSEQ leading scorer added two goals to her total in this game and she’s now up to 11 goals and 10 assists in 13 games this season. In this game, Bégin-Cyr’s vision to put herself in the right spots was perfectly demonstrated by her two goals. Her first was a chase-down on a puck before firing it through the pads of Martlet goalie Tricia Deguire. The second was a shot from the slot where Bégin-Cyr had movement coming across the ice and fired a cross-body shot that went off the post and in. Deguire made 36 saves on 39 shots.
“She’s only a second-year player and she’s a huge impact player for us,” said Chu about Bégin-Cyr. “I just think she’s going to continue to get better and better. The big thing about Rosalie is that she’s such a smart player. She’s skilled and talented and has a lot of great tools, but she probably has one of the best visions in the game. I think her instincts put her in good spots, and also give her linemates great opportunities as well.”
The biggest issue for the Stingers all year has been their power play. The team was 5-for-51 going into this game which adds up to a difficult 9.8% power play, worst in the division.
“It’s just repetition,” said Chu. “It’s taking a look at the game video and finding ways to make better reads. We have talented players, players that can score, pass, do all those things, but a successful power play has the ability to move the puck but ultimately read what’s the opening. I think that’s what we’ve had some trouble on.”
Now let’s combine a couple of things here. Let’s combine the Stingers’ seemingly cursed power play with the stop-at-nothing attitude that Belzile brings to her game. What comes out of the oven is a power play goal that saved the Stingers a crucial point in this game. Drawing a four-minute power play, the Stingers started out the extra player advantage similar to how they’ve done all season; they struggled. They struggled getting the puck out of their own end and they struggled moving the puck into dangerous areas. The Stingers called their time out, and pulled Philbert with over three minutes to play. With 36 seconds left on the power play, Dubois ripped a shot from the high circle, but the puck bounced off Deguire directly to Belzile who was barreling down the boards and fired a one-timer to tie it up.
“When our power play is not successful, that’s often times what’s happening, we’re not making the correct reads, maybe we’re forcing a little too much,” said Chu. “So it was good to see our girls really fight in the third, being down two goals, coming back getting one, and then plugging away and getting an opportunity on the power play at the end of that game to be successful as well.”
That was as much momentum as the Stingers would gather though. Overtime was dominated by the Martlets, first in the 4-on-4 period, and again in the 3-on-3 period. Kellyanne Lecours from McGill was the one to finally bury the puck past Philbert for the Martlets win.
“The big thing is to not hang our heads,” said Chu. “It’s a long season and we’re in a tremendous league. We know that we’re going to be in tight, hard-fought games and we gotta make sure that we continue doing the little things right and staying positive is the number one thing. We have an opportunity tomorrow to go and have a great game too.”
Notes:
Don’t be fooled by McGill’s lower ranking on the top 10 list. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them jump a couple of spots. Matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Concordia loses it’s #1 ranking if they can’t definitively beat UDEM on Sunday.
